A 19-month-old girl was reportedly removed from an airplane and met with police after being deemed a ‘security breach’.
Little Sarina Aziz was travelling from Israel to London Luton, when she became agitated as the plane taxied the runway.
It is believed that the incident kicked off after airplane crew asked Sarina’s parents to place her on their laps, with the child growing agitated after parents Ariella and Mark strapped her in with the connector belt required for children under two years.
Sarina’s tears caused the cabin crew to alert the pilot, who decided to halt the flight and call security to remove the Aziz family from the plane.
Commenting on the incident to MailOnline.com, shocked dad Mark, who is based in North London, said: “I want to emphasise that we wanted to, and were, complying with the crew and their instruction. I was simply trying to restrain our daughter who had become unhappy after being moved from a child seat onto our laps.”
He added: “We had actually purchased a seat for her to sit in, and she was very happy in that and belted correctly. But the stewardess came up to us and said that their policy was for the child to be seated on a parent’s lap; we said we were happy to go along with this and were in no way argumentative.”
A spokesperson for the airline they were flying on, Transavia, has since issued a statement saying that the family were taken off the flight because the child was misbehaving and not following instructions.
They told the publication: “It is very important that flight safety instructions are followed by all our passengers. It was unfortunate that the child was ill, but even then the flight safety rules must be followed.”
